We know what you’re thinking. Yes, publicly, the Supreme Court’s rulings this week on the Affordable Care Act and and gay marriage were a loss for the GOP. But privately, we’ve got to think there are more than a few Republicans relieved at the news.

Imagine the political fallout had the Supreme Court ruled against the administration and effectively gutted the Affordable Care Act.

Millions of Americans across 34 states — most of them red states — would have lost their insurance subsidies.

It would have been a mess — one the Republican-controlled Congress would have likely had to clean up. And while Republicans had been floating a few contingency plans for that scenario, they weren’t able to coalesce around one. (Video via House Republicans)

In a sense, this way Republicans get the best of both worlds. They can continue to rail against the law without actually dealing with it.